Brick-lifter.



' H. B. CRUM.

' BRICK LIFTER. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 1. 1913.

Patented July 25, 1916.

HOLIJ IS 1B. CRUM, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO RAYMOND C. PENFIELD, OF

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

BRICK-LIFTER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 25, 11916.

Application filed November 1, 1913. Serial No. 798,761.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HOLLIS B. CRUM, a citizen of the United. States, and resident of Chicago, county of Cook, State of Illinois, have invented an Improvement in Brick- Lifters, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

My presentinvention is a mechanical brick handling apparatus, intended primarily for use in handling unit stacks of brick, lifting, transporting, and releasing the same when lowered on to the ground or a support.

It is customary to handle brick by setting devices or apparatus which will lift and transport an entire load or unit of stacked brick, such mechanical lifters being heavy and somewhat complex in construction and usually requiring that the unit or stack of brick to be lifted shall have first been piled in a particular or special manner, as, for example, upon ribs or a foundation row of brick with spaced intervals therebetween, to permit the insertion of lifting bars.

It is an object of my present invention, however, to enable a stack or unit of brick of considerable size, height, and weight to be lifted automatically, transported, automatically released in its new position on the ground, floor of the car, or the like without special reference whatever to the original manner in which the brick are stacked or piled.

The present invention, therefore, provides an apparatus which will lift a unit or stack of brick with its lowermost or foundation row formed solid, without spaces or interstices therein, without the necessityof manually operating or affixing any lifting or brick engaging devices, and wh1ch w1ll automatically engage the stack to lifted with sufiicient clamping force to raise the same. I also provide means whereby speh a stack of brick, of varying thickness, Wlll be au tomatically engaged with sufficient clamping force to enable the same to be lifted, including the bottom or foundation row, entirely irrespective of the precise width of the stack, so that no special piling 15 required.

Other features of the invention, novel combinations of parts, and details of construction, will be hereinafter more fully pointed out and claimed. I

Referring to the drawings, illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention, Fig ure 1 1s a new of my improved apparatus,

showing the same in position about a stack of tively large stack, as, for example, a wagonv load, my invention is preferably intended for use with loads of considerable size and weight. As herein shown, I have illustrated the apparatus of appropriate size to handle a stack of from five hundred to seven hundred brick.

A series of U-shaped members adapted to be lowered over the brick pile 1, are indicated at 2, with U-shaped arms 3 and 4. As herein shown, I employ four of such U- shaped members, uniting the same by means of a plurality of bolts 5 and 6, giving a suitable spacing or spread to the apparatus. The members 2 are preferably formed of angle iron, and of suitable strength and length of arms 3 and 4, to extend above the approximate stack or unit of brick to which the lifter is intended to be ap lied. Each member 2 has upstanding lugs and 8 near either end to which are pivoted levers 9 and 10 respectively. Triangular links 11 and 12 are secured by pivots 13 to the ends of each lever 9 and 10 respectively, said links being also pivoted at 14 to a lifting bar or bars 15. This lifting bar maybe of angle iron, or of double angle iron, and is preferably provided with pairs of depending angle irons or lugs 16 and 17, secured to the bar 15 by bolts 18 in appropriate positions. to carry the pivots 14, as clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2. A lifting bail 19 is also secured to the lifter bar 15 by suitable bolts 20. When the lifting strain is applied to the bail 19, the lifter bar 15 acts to raise the inner ends of the levers 9 and 10 upwardly, and to facilitate this action without binding, the openings in the inner ends of the levers 9 and 10 through which the pivots 13 pass, are slotted or elongated as indicated in dotted lines at 21 snfliciently to permit a sliding action therein.

In order to lighten the construction of the apparatus, as well as to provide sulficient strength, I prefer to employ double lifter bars 15, 15 of angle iron, as illustrated in Fig. 1, utilizing the bolts 20 to hold the same together, as well as the depending lugs 16 and 17 and their retaining bolts 18, which constitute a rigid structure of great strength. The levers 10 are of suilicient length to extend beyond their respective pivots on each lug 8 of the frames to which they are attached, and to their outer ends respectively are pivoted links 22. I prefer to form the arms 3 of each member 2 of appropriate depth to engage the lowermost row of brick of the stack, and so that said arm may rest directly upon the ground, floors, or other support upon which the brick are piled. The other arm 4'is somewhat shorter and has a lowermost pivoted portion 23 secured to the end portion of the arm 4. While any suitable angle iron or the like may be employed for these members 2 and arms 3 and 4, I prefer to employ a double flanged or U-shaped construction as herein illustrated, and also to have the lowermost pivoted portion 23 formed with a relatively broad brick engaging flange 24 and with double link portions 23 formed integrally with the'portion 24 and extending adjacent either flange of the arms 4, where they are held by pivot pins 25 (see Fig. 2). Between the link portions 23 and on the same pivot pin 25, I mount a triangular toggle plate 26 with an outer portion pivoted at 27 tothe link 22, which link in turn is pivoted to the outer end of the lever 10 as already described. This link 22 may have forked end portions 28 and 29 with right and left hand threaded connections to e1ther end of the link 22, in order to provide adjustment and convenient assemblage. The lowermost corner of the toggle plate 26 is formed as a boss or lug 30 bored to receive the stem of the bolt 31, having its outer end threaded and with a nut 32 secured thereon. The boss 30 is in substantially the same plane as the flange 24, and arranged substantially centrally thereof,.the headed bolt 31 passing through an aperture in the center of the flange 24. Between the boss 30 and the back of the plate 24 is interposed a strong expansible spring 33, see Fig. 1.

When lifting power is applied to the bail 19 or to the lifter bars 15, the'inner ends 1 of the levers 9 and 10 connected with the plates 11 and 12 are raised, and the outer portion of the levers 10 extending beyond their respective pivots on the lugs 8 is depressed and through the links 22 the toggle members 26 are rocked on the pivots 29, thus swinging the flanges or plates 24 in a substantially horizontal direction toward the other arm 3. When the apparatus is lowered about a brick pile 1 and the lifting strain is then applied, the flan cs 24 will (mutant. with the adjacent-sur ace of the brick pile and will automatically set orposition the entire apparatus thereon, as the lifting strain continues. Further lifting pressure compresses the springs 33, thus affording a yielding clamping tension upon the sides of the brick stack 1 which is engaged by the flanges 23 and the lowermost lifting faces 34 on each arm 3, until the spring 33'is compressed sufliciently to enable the apparatus to raise the entire stack 1. The weight of the stack 1 automatically controls the tension exerted on the lowermost row of brick to lift both said row and the entire superimposed stack, as will be readily understood. I may coat or affix to the brick engaging surfaces of the flange 24 and portion 34 a rubber or leather friction surface 35, to further increase the holding tension of the clamp on such brick. With the clamp in position about a brick stack, as explained, and lifting such stack, it may be transported to a new position, to a car, to a barge, Wagon or the like, and the apparatus then lowered until the stack of brick is rested in its new position, the continual lowering of the lifter bar 15 serving to depress the inner ends of the levers 9 and 10, and thereby to free the flange 24 fromits contact with the brick pile as the toggle 26 is raised upwardly through the link 22. The nut 32 bearing against the boss 30 on the toggle member, limits the expansion of the spring 33 and also serves to draw back the flange '24 after the lifting tension has been released through the lowering of the apparatus on to a support, as above explained.

In order to hold the clamping apparatus opened, and in position to facilitate its lowering about a brick stack before lifting same, I attach a latch 36 to the lifting bar 15 at any point, preferably swinging same on one of the pivots 14, said latch being provided with a hook end 37 adapted to engage a bolt or pin 38, or one of the members 2 immediately below the same, so that when the bar is lowered sufficiently for the hooked end 37 tocatch on to the bar 38, the apparatus may then be lifted by means of this latch 36 and the'lower part of the apparatus will be held in open position, so that it may be lowered about the brick stack. In order to control the latch 36 and to facilitate its engagement with the bolt 3, as well as to disengage .the same therefrom, when the lifting tension is desired to pull on the levers 9 and 10, I aiiix a handle 39 to the latch so that the operator may swing the same into or out of locking engagement with the nut 38.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A brick handling apparatus ada ted to '3 points, and means to exert a compressive tension on said bottom row between the depending members to lift the, entire stack upon application of lifting power to said' frame. a a v 2. A brick handling apparatus, comprising a plurality of U-shaped frame members adapted to be positioned over a lurality of brick in super-imposed rows, a pivoted brick engagin member carried by one arm of each U-s aped frame to engage the lowermost row of brick of the stack at a plurality of points, means to actuate said pivoted member toward and from the brick stack by a link operated through the lifting of the apparatus.

3. A brick handling apparatus, comprising a plurality of U-shaped members adapt-' ed to be lowered over a pile of brick in super-imposed rows, the U-shaped arms of each member being longer on one side than upon the other, a link connected with the shorter arms movable toward and from the lowermost portion of the opposite rigid arm,

and means to actuate said link yieldingly to clamp the bottom row of the brick pile,

upon application of a lifting power to the frame, whereby the lowermost row of the ile is engaged with suificient clamping orce to carry said lower row and the superimposed rows thereon.

- In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HOLLIS B. CRUM. Witnesses:

H. S. SIMPSON, C. P. Mn'rnns. 

